


Fear Looks Cute On You

by naega_star



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 07:44:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4821002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naega_star/pseuds/naega_star
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kris and Chanyeol work overnight security but a haunted mall is more than they bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear Looks Cute On You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xiusoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiusoo/gifts).



> This prompt screamed KrisYeol at me and I tried to add humor as requested - hope you like it!

To most people, working from midnight to seven in the morning is anything but appealing. Yifan and Chanyeol didn’t mind it though, generally using their seven hour shifts as overnight security at the Lotte Department Store to quickly make their rounds and then goof off in the security office while occasionally sparing the monitors a glance. Both men weren’t above being silly, and they found each other’s company to be more than enough reason to stay on the graveyard shift. 

Sometimes their shenanigans went a little far—once, Chanyeol had pulled out cans of silly string and the two had spent their rounds trying to attack each other. That had earned them a Serious Talking To from their boss Junmyeon, who let them off with a warning since it’s hard enough finding people to work mall security, let alone the graveyard shift.

Generally their job was pretty uneventful, a couple quick rounds of the stores and mindlessly staring at monitors. Due to this, when they were suddenly woken up from their “shift’s almost over” nap by a sudden phone call on the department store’s internal line, the two exchanged extremely confused looks before ambling out of their office to the elevator. They blinked sleep out of their eyes, yawning heavily as they went up to the lingerie department on the fourth floor. 

They were met there by Junmyeon and Sehun, the security guard that came in to take over for Yifan and Chanyeol, who were both comforting a fuming employee.

“LOOK at this, the mannequin is _on the ceiling_ and those bras are ruined, they’ve been stretched to all hell, we can’t sell those!” the petite man yelled, flailing wildly as he looked at up at the mess and proceeded to burst into angry tears. Chanyeol followed his gaze to the ceiling first, letting out a choked laugh as he elbowed Yifan in the side to direct his attention to the reason for the spectacle. 

One of the lingerie section mannequins was somehow fastened to the ceiling, although no tape was visible. Several of the fancy bras from the store were wrapped around the mannequin in various places that bras aren’t supposed to be, explaining the angry man’s bemoaning about stretched bands. Yifan, unable to contain himself, guffawed at the sight, drawing the wailing man’s attention as he stormed over.

“Are you two the night guards? How did this happen?? Why didn’t you stop it???” he punctuated the questions with long fingers jabbing harshly at their chests. 

“We are the night guards...um…” Chanyeol glanced down at the man’s nametag, “...Baekhyun-ssi. And we’re sorry, but no alarms went off and we didn’t see anything on the monitors or when we made rounds.” 

Yifan cleared his throat before adding on, “We’ll also help you take that down right away.” That seemed to somewhat appease Baekhyun as he mumbled a “you’d better” and Sehun brought over a small ladder to allow them to retrieve the displaced display.

Chanyeol climbed up, looking for any signs of tape or glue, but the moment he touched the mannequin to see if he could pull it down, the full weight of it fell into his arms as if it hadn’t been fastened to the ceiling at all. 

Carefully making his way down, he handed the mannequin over to Baekhyun who immediately began checking the display for damage. 

“Was it glued up there? The ceiling looks okay…” Junmyeon questioned, looking up at the place where the mannequin had been.

“That’s the weird thing...it came down without any resistance like it was just….floating up there until I went to grab it,” Chanyeol replied. 

Baekhyun groaned loudly, “Great. The display is haunted. Not only are these bras useless, someone’s also going to have to exorcise this mannequin. The exorcism fee had better not come out of my paycheck—this is above my pay grade.”

“I’m sure this was just some prank. Yifan and Chanyeol will be extra vigilant in their upcoming shifts to catch the culprit if they come back to target this department, or any other area of the mall,” Junmyeon assured, lightly patting a distressed Baekhyun on the shoulder before turning to the two night guards. “Extra. Vigilant.”

They gulped before blurting out a “yes boss” and “of course sir,” excusing themselves to collect their things and go rest so they could be “extra vigilant” that night when they went on shift again. Throughout it all, Chanyeol didn’t notice that Yifan’s face had gone white at the mention of the word “haunted.”

***

During their next shift, they decided to make their rounds quickly so they could focus on observing the monitors closely, keeping watch on the shopping center’s various floors. Even fighting off their urge to nap around six as they usually did, the night passed with no activity detected and both guards assumed the culprit hadn’t come back.

Yifan threw an arm around Chanyeol’s shoulders as they got ready to leave the department store. “Wanna grab something to eat? I’m starving and I don’t think I have breakfast at home.” Just as Chanyeol was going to answer with an affirmative, a shout of “WE HAVE A PROBLEM,” from behind them stopped them in their tracks. 

Junmyeon, the source of the voice, ran up and started pulling on Chanyeol—and Yifan by default, since his arm was still hooked around Chanyeol’s shoulder. The head of security pulled them to the center of the food court, where the fountain had been turned on and was spitting out liquid that was a deep crimson. 

“....oh, that is a problem” Chanyeol murmured before their boss asked if they’d seen _absolutely anything_ suspicious on shift. After promising that they’d watched the monitors like a pair of hawks, Junmyeon ordered them to rest up for their next shift because he wanted them to focus on making rounds in hopes of catching whoever’s behind this in the act. 

As Junmyeon walked away, presumably to find someone to get the fountain to stop churning out red, Chanyeol linked arms with Yifan, leading him out of the mall so they could actually leave this time. “So, shall we grab breakfast now? Build up strength to fight the ghost of Lotte Department Store tonight?” he laughed, stopping only as Yifan pulled his arm away suddenly.

“I forgot, I do have food at home….in fact, I should eat it before it goes bad so I’m just gonna head back. See you tonight,” Yifan blurted out before hurriedly heading towards the station to go home. Chanyeol blinked away confusion before heading to the bus stop. 

***  
Chanyeol walked into the security office that night, toting a bag of cheeseburgers and fries from his and Yifan’s favorite burger joint. He swung the door open, simultaneously proclaiming “I come bearing sustenance!” before being greeted by Yifan holding a broom with an iron grip, ready to strike.

Realizing it was just Chanyeol, Yifan slowly dropped the broom to the ground and slumped back into one of their rolling chairs. 

“Uhhhh...are you ok? I’ve never seen you so...jumpy,” Chanyeol remarked, sitting the food down in front of the monitors and plopping down onto his chair, rolling over to Yifan until their knees were touching.

“It’s nothing, I was just startled with these mystery pranks and all…” he trailed off, rolling back a little and looking back towards the monitors. “Anyway, thanks for the food—let’s eat before we have to go make rounds.” He grabbed a burger and container of fries out of the bag, eating quietly as Chanyeol reached for his food and wondered what was really going on with his partner.

It didn’t take long for them to finish eating and grab their walkie-talkies and flashlights as they patrolled the dark mall, deciding to focus on the ground floor, where it would be easiest for the prankster to enter. Chanyeol flashed his light over at one of the numerous cosmetics counters, sweeping the dark corners for any signs of movement. “This is lame, we don’t even know if the culprit’s coming back...hey, maybe that guy from lingerie was right and it really is a ghost,” Chanyeol joked, turning abruptly when he heard Yifan’s flashlight drop to the ground. 

He reached down and grabbed the light, reaching out to hand it to Yifan as he let out a laugh and “here you go butterfingers” before realizing that his partner was...trembling? Yifan wasn’t making any attempt to reach out and retrieve the light, arms pressed to his sides as he stood with his face down to the ground. 

“Wait...are...are you seriously scared that there’s a ghost in the department store?” Chanyeol asked, voice heavily laced with disbelief. Yifan was one of the few of Chanyeol’s friends he didn’t have to look down at, and combined with strong facial features he generally appeared quite imposing. The thought of him being freaked out by ghost stories just seemed...ridiculous.

Yifan’s eyes widened as he floundered to finally grab his flashlight from Chanyeol’s outstretched hands. “What? Nooooooo, why would I be...afraid of ghosts that’s….that’s silly, ghosts aren’t even _real_. And even if they were...psshhh, I could take them.” 

Chanyeol stared for a moment, slightly suspicious of his friend’s protests. His suspicions were soon confirmed when a sudden clanging sound came from the direction of the food court and Yifan let out what could only be described as a shriek. After he finished wailing, Yifan looked over to find his partner gaping at him, gesturing wildly with his flashlight.

“You’re totally afraid of ghosts,” Chanyeol said softly, walking over and resting his unoccupied hand on Yifan’s shoulder. “You didn’t have to lie about it, you know.”

Chanyeol felt as Yifan’s shoulders slumped, the taller man letting out a loud sigh. “It’s embarrassing though...and afraid or not, I can’t leave you to do the work by yourself. We have a job,” Yifan mumbled, straightening back up and fidgeting with his flashlight. “I’ll try to keep it together.” 

The two continued making their rounds, nothing out of the ordinary turning up. Chanyeol was glad for the lack of any discovery, as the longer things were uneventful, the more Yifan seemed to return to normal. The initially anxious man was happily elbowing and laughing with his partner when a shadowy figure zipped through the beam of their lights. 

“What…what the fuck was that?” Yifan croaked out, beginning to shake. 

“Probably our culprit, we should follow it,” Chanyeol began, turning to walk in the direction the figure had darted until he felt himself being pulled back.

“No, no way, that moved way too fast to be a person, we have to run,” Yifan babbled, pulling a protesting Chanyeol in the opposite direction to a small corridor that lead to the restrooms before crouching down and proceeding to rock back and forth. 

“Oh no...Yifan, come on, what happened to keeping it together?” Chanyeol leaned over, gently pulling Yifan up and coaxing him into a mostly standing position. Yifan looked to be one step away from full-on sobbing, eyes wet and cheeks splotchy as he gasped around his words.

“I—tried,” he choked out as he rubbed at his face with his palms, “ItriedIfailedI’m—that was a ghost, that was a fucking _ghost_ , we’re doomed...we can’t do this...we’re not the Ghostbusters or something, we’re just two security guards that rarely secure or guard anything!!!” 

Yifan rambled on, a few tears escaping to roll down his cheeks as he tried to slowly sink back down to the floor because, by his logic, “the floor is good, the floor is safe.” 

“NOPE,” Chanyeol grunted as he pulled Yifan back up and slammed his hand against the wall by his blubbering friend’s head, satisfied by the loud ‘thwonk’ that seemed to bring Yifan somewhat back to his senses, while also holding back a wince because _wow that hurt_.

Leaning in slightly, Chanyeol observed Yifan, waiting until the other man could look at him instead of gazing terrified at the floor. After five minutes passed with no luck in that department, Chanyeol braced himself for the pain and slapped his hand against the wall again, making sure to catch Yifan’s gaze as soon as the man jolted his head up in surprise. Chanyeol blinked, taking in Yifan’s flushed cheek and tear-glossed eyes. _Wow he looks...pretty like this…wait—whoa not the time Yeol, get it together._ Chanyeol shook his head as though he could shake those thoughts away and returned to the matter at hand.

“Yifan I need you to focus. Whatever—or rather, _whoever_ we just saw is still in the building somewhere. Probably on this floor since we shut down the elevators before we left, and the doors to the stairwells would’ve triggered the alarm. We need to catch them,” Chanyeol poked at Yifan’s cheek with his non-pained hand, noting the other’s tremble at the mention of springing into action. “I know, you’re scared, I get it. But we have no choice—better to sneak up on the culprit than have them sneak up on us.”

“Too late,” a voice called out from the end of the hallway, sending Yifan careening straight into Chanyeol’s chest, face buried in Chanyeol’s shoulder as he murmured helplessly. As best he could with an arm full of sobbing Yifan, Chanyeol pointed his flashlight in the direction of the sound, relishing in the “watch the eyes!” he got when he aimed the light up high enough. 

The culprit walked towards them, and Chanyeol squinted as the man became more and more visible. He was quite tall—near comparable to Yifan or himself—with long, thin legs and...a long torso and...a rather familiar face. “Sehun?? _You’re_ the culprit???”

Yifan lifted his face from Chanyeol’s shoulder to look at the intruder for the first time. “Sehun’s a ghost??? Oh god how long has he been dead? Have we been signing shift over to a ghost for all this time???”

“I’m not a ghost you idiot, I just set up the pranks to convince my mom to let me quit this job.” Sehun scoffed. 

“Wait, what?” Chanyeol looked at Sehun with an eyebrow raised. “You did all this…to quit?”

Sehun let out a long sigh, arms crossed as he began to explain. “My mom’s always on my case about switching jobs, so if I quit without “good reason” she’ll never let me hear the end of it. I don’t see why it’s her business—I make my rent...mostly. I’m not trying to move back home, that’s for sure. She’s real superstitious though, so if I make her think I’m leaving because the place is haunted she’ll let me quit _and_ maybe give me an allowance while I find something new. I’m thinking barista. I’d buy coffee from me. You guys would buy coffee from me, right?”

Chanyeol and Yifan stood there, awestruck as Sehun looked at them hopefully, waiting for an answer. Met with nothing but silence, Sehun huffed before continuing on. “Anyway...this is my last prank and then I’m outta here. You guys better not rat on me...or else,” Sehun paused to hold up his phone, “I’ll show everyone the nice video I got of Yifan’s blubbering.”

Yifan shuddered against Chanyeol, who was vaguely wondering why the other man was still pressed against him, but found he didn’t really mind. “You wouldn’t…”

“I put an electromagnet in the ceiling so I could make the mannequin stay put without having any restraints and then turned it off right as Chanyeol went to pull it down. Do you know how precise my timing had to be? I’m committed to this so if you mess it up then yes—I most definitely would.”

“What about the fountain?” Chanyeol blurted out, curiosity getting the best of him.

“That?” Sehun shrugged, “that was just Kool-Aid. Had to budget wisely after how much that magnet cost.”

“Anyway...we won’t tell anyone okay. But just so we know what to expect...what’d you set up tonight?” Chanyeol wanted to be able to brace himself for whatever mess Junmyeon would find in the morning.

“Let’s just say you might want to avoid the frozen yogurt tomorrow,” Sehun laughed before turning on his heel to walk away, pausing after a few steps to look over his shoulder. “By the way you two look cute together. You should...do something with that,” he gestured at the fact that Chanyeol and Yifan were still basically embracing each other. Suddenly embarrassed at their position being acknowledged, Chanyeol moved his arms so Yifan could extricate himself and the two stood next to each other, faces red and looking at anything but each other. 

Sehun laughed and walked off into the darkness of the Food Court, allowing a small smile as out of the corner of his eye he noticed Yifan and Chanyeol creeping out of the hallway and back towards the security office, pinky fingers linked.

 

The next morning found a sleepy Yifan and Chanyeol ambling out of the department store, fingers interlaced as Junmyeon wailed in the background about how much it would cost to clean Play-Doh out of the frozen yogurt machines.


End file.
